The term “prostate cancer” is an umbrella term that covers five major stages and 15 subtypes. It is not a singular disease. There are distinct varieties.

People often mistakenly assume that the different ways prostate cancer behaves—life threatening vs. benign—are due to seeing the same illness at different time points. In reality, distinct varieties of prostate cancer exist. It’s not all the same disease. The clinical stage and the pathologic stage are important, but it’s not the whole picture.

What’s overlooked, often with disastrous consequences, is that these differences are also due to the fact that distinct varieties of prostate cancer exist. Receiving optimal therapy depends on matching an appropriate treatment with both the correct stage and the correct type of prostate cancer.